


The Fool's Journey

by mizael



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, M/M, Tarot, ygoshipolympics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-27
Packaged: 2018-04-06 10:45:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 9,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4218771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizael/pseuds/mizael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A journey consists of twenty-two steps. At the end of it, a fool is still a fool--if only because he has seen the world.</p><blockquote>
  <p>One of them trips over a pile of tires near the center of the room and it’s so incredibly cliche when they land on top of each other and Juudai has that twinkle in his eyes that Yuusei smothers with kisses.<br/>But that's fine, isn't it?</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Fool

**Author's Note:**

> for the yugioh shipping olympics!  
> prompt: chocolate (challenge: not valentine's/white day) + coffee
> 
> i dont want to look at this thing ever again  
> cries
> 
> lineart by [thayora](http://thayora.tumblr.com) and color by zero!

First glance, the landlord tells him that there’s _no way_ he’s going to live here, no way a street rat who doesn’t know his cogs from his gears could ever _afford_ to live here, but he just smiles and takes it all in, brings out his papers at the end of the landlord’s ranting and almost laughs as he blanches in utter surprise.

“Mi-Mister Yuuki, I didn’t know, I-I, surely…” the man is blubbering vowels through his clattering teeth and shaking hands, eyes fixed disbelieving on the paper in front of him. “I-I meant no disrespect, Herald, please understand—”

But Juudai just laughs and waves him off, red knapsack slung over his shoulder and a fat tabby at his heels, dressed in a white shirt and red vest, uncommon red-golds of the peasantry, and riveted copper goggles perched on his head. “Don’t worry, I get that a lot,” he says. “Just call me Juudai.”

The landlord makes some more stuttered sentences and shows him to a room—dinky, old, but well-kept—and gives him the keys and tells him that he really doesn’t have another room, he’s really sorry, but your roommate is a very good person, he’ll vouch.

Juudai laughs again and thanks him, the cat bounding off further into the spacious apartment, surprisingly big for such a small building, or maybe it’s just because it’s kept so clean. There’s an unfinished project on the dining table: a dog made of metal and machine, still has its body torn wide open to connect wires and clockwork, a mess of tools and gears at its feet. Juudai prods around for a small while but loses interest just as quickly.

“Hello?” he shouts, but there’s no answer. The cat comes bounding back a little bit later to find a space on the couch and make himself comfortable. Juudai does the same. “Guess they’re not back yet. Maybe I got time to explore. What do you think, Pharaoh?”

The cat meows but doesn’t pester him further, content to curl up and lounge on the cheap couch of ripped brown leather. Outside, the heavy sounds of machinery continue as workers dig up another lot, the smoke rises from the factories, and he’s close enough to the ground to hear the catcalls of the passing men and the jeers of the whores plying their trade.

He doesn’t realize he’s started dozing until the cuckoo clock on the other side of the room hoots a note for eight o’clock and the door opens just after. It’s the heat of summer and the sun is still high despite it almost being nine, though it gives him the comfort of orange skies—just dark enough for dusk.

His roommate stops at the door and blinks once, surprised, but not shocked, dressed in a dirty white shirt and black suspenders, goggles messily placed on his head and covered in grime. And then suddenly he’s around the room, tidying up out-of-the-way messes, cleaning spots that Juudai would have never noticed nor cared for.

“I’m extremely sorry for how messy this is,” he says, still got his hands packing away tiny messes in an otherwise spotless living room. “It’s not usually like this. I have a project and I made a mess, I’m so sorry—”

“It’s alright!” there’s a grin on his face and more laughter bubbling in his throat. Juudai turns and watches with amused curiosity as his roommate goes around to tidy. “I think it’s clean enough. Better than the last place I lived in.”

That stops him enough. “Where was that?”

“Somewhere far away,” another laugh, and then Juudai sticks his hand out. “I’m Juudai. Juudai Yuuki.”

“Yuusei Fudou,” handshakes—Yuusei’s hands are definitely rough, calloused with gears and wrenches and motor oil (smells like it, too)—and then he stands there awkwardly for a moment more. “I’m a mechanic.”

“I’m an adventurer.”

He’s eighteen and foolish, and makes his residence in the lower half of town, covered in factory smoke and dirt and the crushing weight of poverty.


	2. The Magician

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The will to create and experience.

Yuusei’s (and by extension—his, now, too) neighbors are a rowdy bunch, loud and rebellious and usually laughing far often than he is, caught up in romantic dreams of fame and glory (and money). Juudai takes it upon himself to introduce himself to the neighbors, since he’ll be living there for a while (how long, he still hasn’t figured out, but then nothing in his life is ever planned), hello, nice to meet you, and all those formalities.

One of them is named Crow, and the other is named Jack. Their apartment is far more cluttered than his, littered with schematics and blueprints, all coffee-stained but still smelling like oil. It reminds him a little of home, the way they argue and butt heads and then immediately settle in like long-lost friends afterwards.

“That Jack’s good for nothing,” Crow will say when it’s just him and Juudai, two steaming coffee mugs between them (the only clean thing in the house). “Goes out late and does gods know what and never even helps around the house. Sheesh.”

Juudai laughs, nursing the mug between his hands but he’s never drank coffee, only took it out of courtesy. “He says the same thing about you sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, he’s gonna get it when he gets back,” Crow scowls, but there’s no malice in his words, just a smile twitching at the edge of his lip. Juudai observes easily how soft Crow’s eyes grow when he speaks of Jack when Jack is not around and it draws a smile to his own face.

It’s sweet in their own bickering way.

“Hey, what’s that?” his eyes focus on a poster on the far wall, by far the only thing there that isn’t partially covered by other maps and schematics. It’s colored beige from the dirt clinging to it—no doubt it was much cleaner when they first got it—but the large red letters of _revolution_ still shine prominently in its center.

“Oh, that,” and Crow’s mood practically drops. “It’s one of Jack’s things, something about a tournament held by the upper city. It’s supposed to be open to everyone, including us, but gods know that they probably won’t process our applications anyway.”

Crow snorts, and then puts his coffee mug on the table half-finished. “He’s got it in his head that he’s got to prove himself to the upper city.”

“Hmmm,” Juudai takes a hesitant sip of the coffee in his hands and then makes a face at the flavor: way too bitter. His mug joins Crow’s. “What’s the tournament about?”

“Machines,” at least here, Crow perks up. “Best responsive and useful invention, has to include usable weapons, or something along those lines. At least they know what they’re doing.”

The conversation strays after that. Crow cleans up their mugs and deposits the (extremely watery) coffee into the sink. They sit around for a while more: Crow talks proudly of his own devices, offers to show them to Juudai later when he’s at shop, and then the phone on the wall rings long enough for Crow to get up and answer.

A few words are exchanged and then he’s got his jacket halfway on. “Got a delivery make,” he says, stuffing an old pocket watch into his pants. The rusted gold chain hangs loose. “Talk to you later, yeah?”

“Sure,” Juudai just takes his keys from the table and steps out after Crow does. He takes a moment more to button up his spats (always coming loose, but then he doesn’t have better material) and then they part ways.

“Oh, right,” Crow stops for a moment, right above the stairs. “I don’t know if Yuusei told you—because he forgets a lot—but he probably won’t be home until late most nights. Works in his own shop two blocks from here. You should stop by.”

“I’ve been meaning to explore the city,” Juudai says with a smile. “Got directions?”

“It’s by the grocery store!” Crow shouts when he’s halfway down the stairs. “Sorry, got to rush!”

“Don’t worry about it!” and the lock to his apartment clicks open. Pharaoh raises his head at the noise but otherwise doesn’t do much from his perch on top of one of the cabinets. Juudai scratches his head in greeting.

The dining table is still a mess of spare parts and Yuusei’s half-finished mechanical dog, but he’s been diligent about keeping at least one tiny corner of it open so that Juudai can eat. He’d laughed and told him it was fine; he’d probably eat on the couch anyway. Yuusei didn’t listen.

He pushes around some of the gears and places his keys on the table. They’re met with a dull clack—rather than the louder noise of metal hitting wood, it’s like metal hitting cardboard—and Juudai looks down.

 _Revolution_ stares up at him.

 


	3. The High Priestess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The knowledge earned from experience.

The landlord is not really the landlord, not in the sense that Juudai thought he was, but more of a proxy leader meant to keep things in control while the actual landlady went about her days in Tops.

Tops, he quickly learns, is exactly what it means. On a map, it’s the northern part of Neo Domino, the city he lives in for now. The city is split into two parts: Tops, the rich and wealthy, and Satellite, the poor and impoverished (and sometimes they’re called Commons, too, said with a sneer and a look of smugness that shines much more brightly than the relief in their eyes). Where the streets of Satellite twist and turn, littered with humans and vehicles and bodies, too many bodies, the streets of Tops are straight and easy and cleaned every day—not a soul lives on the pavement.

(Not a soul dies there, either.)

This is something Crow says with a scowl, something Yuusei silently agrees with over dinner together, something Jack chooses to stay eerily silent on when Juudai looks over. The table is set for four people, something that they all seem like they’ve done before, two cans of peas and a measly helping of rice between them. Even then, Juudai realizes, it’s a feast.

Rice is hard to come by, maybe food they can eat once a month if they save up enough to buy a bag from the merchants traveling between Tops and Satellite. It’s a luxury item and a necessity all at once. They hate it.

“We should set the table for one more person,” Yuusei says when Juudai is done carrying over all the dishes and the chairs are set. They eat in Crow and Jack’s apartment, their own dining table too messy and occupied to hold more than one plate at a time.

Crow looks ready to protest. “Yuusei, if this is about—”

“No, it’s not,” Yuusei tries to smile—tries, because it’s so porcelain and fragile that Juudai can’t even count it as a smile at all. There’s so much he doesn’t know between them, hidden in the creases and shadows of their faces when they stare at the number four and cringe. “Aki is coming over tonight. She’ll bring some food as well.”

“Oh,” Juudai isn’t sure if Crow looks relieved or disappointed, maybe a bit of both, but he goes to get the extra dishes. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”

Aki is a woman of overwhelming presence, but it’s not a presence she wants, Juudai learns. Smaller and smaller, she tries to be smaller than what the eye can see until she’s microscopic and the world will pass her over.

(But her clothes are wine red, of far better texture than anything Juudai has seen in Satellite, and screams to the world that she’s there and she matters, with her polished gears glued to her corset and large skirts that fan out like a cage around her. No, she doesn’t want to disappear, she still wants to be seen, but at the same time— _at the same time_ —)

Dinner passes as a rowdy affair, even as Yuusei tries to mediate between Jack and Crow to keep their noise level to a minimum, but Aki’s laughter joins in soon after.

It’s a bit cliche, he’ll think later on, when Juudai drops his fork and Aki leans down to get it, and then when their hands brush Aki loses the mirth in her eyes. She turns to him with the tears (not real, he doesn’t see them but he knows they’re there, the way she looks at him with softest gaze he can imagine) forming at the edge of her eyes. He tries to say something, because he _knows_ that look, knows it best when he stood alone over that pile of bodies and his friends could do nothing but _look_.

But Aki knows, he realizes, much better than anyone else in the room. She doesn’t offer it--she doesn’t say her sympathies and _I’m sorry_ and a whole bunch of other meaningless chatter that’s supposed to make him feel better.

Instead, “Here,” she hands him a card later, after dinner and the other three are cleaning up; there’s an eye with a sword through it on the back, a lovely woman in glowing purple robes on the front. The letters on the bottom are smudged, and he can’t make out much besides a seventeen.

“What’s this for?” he asks.

“It’s a good luck charm,” she says, holding her own card out. The letters on hers are smudged, too, only a barely readable two is on the bottom.

“Why?”

“Yuusei is running for Revolution.”

“I saw a poster on the dining table,” he replies. Juudai isn’t sure what to do with the card, but he’ll pocket it away for later.

“Yuusei is good company,” she continues on. “He knows, too.”

“Knows what?”

He stares at her amber eyes--orange and muddied brown, too many things hidden behind those irises but Aki just smiles. “About you.”


	4. The Empress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abundance and creation.

Dreams hang from his fingers like wilted flowers, vines curl along his palms and then his arm, leaving a bouquet of vile cuts in its wake--once, it held flowers, Juudai is sure. Once, those muscles grew along with a host of soft roots and thornless vines, a meadow of plant life that his skin happily provided with itself as soil.

Harmony, unity--

It’s gone, now.

Stolen, almost, like someone had grasped the flowers by their stems and ripped them out in a fit of rage and he can’t help but think that Yuusei did it to himself.

“Could you get that box in the corner for me?” Yuusei asks and he finds himself following his request with a contemplative hum and a thoughtful expression.

"Here it is," he says, setting the old cardboard box down next to the mechanic. The contents clink and rattle.

"Thanks," Yuusei slides out from under his mechanical dog and grabs a set of wires and cogs from the box--old and chipped, but working still, or else Yuusei wouldn't use them.

"Are you sure these will do?" Juudai knows nothing about building or mechanics, and so he just takes a seat at the dining table and watches Yuusei work on the floor, chin against the backseat.

It's easier this way, he'd said. The dog was just placed on the dining table in order to not accidentally trip over it, and it's not like Yuusei uses it much anyway when his meals are a little sporadic and often eaten in the middle of a repair.

"They'll work fine with some adjustments," he just says in reply. "These were part of the scrap heap but every part can be reused and repurposed if you know how to do it. The trash holds a lot of gold."

Juudai laughs. "Do you see yourself as some sort of gear connoisseur?"

He can't see Yuusei's face and the slight upward twitch of his lips but he knows it's there. "Maybe."

It's a comfortable silence, the one they share, accompanied by the clink of metal on metal, wrench against screw. Juudai doesn't come from such a mechanized city, powered by steam and rotating gears (if he can say he comes from a city at all).

"Do you think you'll be done soon?" as much as watching Yuusei work is a nice pastime, there's only so much of Juudai's patience that can withstand sitting in a chair for longer than ten minutes. He needs to move and to explore and all those things that feed his curiosity. Or else to go and nap for a while.

"I'm halfway there but I don't want to say how long until completion since I still have to take it for test runs, too," Yuusei says, and then: "I don't see you working."

"I don't know anything about machines--"

"Not that," Yuusei slides out again, this time to lock eyes with Juudai's and he can't look away at all. "You're kind of like a housewife."

"Pfft," Juudai can't hold in his laughter at all. He leans back and uses his legs to wrap around the chair to keep balance, allowing a bubble of laughter to shake his body. "A _housewife_."

"You don't go out unless to explore or buy groceries," Yuusei doesn't see at all what's so funny about it, but he trudges on. "How do you make rent?"

At this, Juudai loses that spark of amusement in his eyes, one that he hopes Yuusei doesn't notice. By practice alone, he keeps the smile on his face. He's done this too many times to count and that's--he'll admit, that's kind of sad.

"Exploring also means working, y'know," he leans forward with a grin. "Right now, it's just odd jobs for people who want errands or something. Kill two birds with one stone."

Yuusei doesn't believe him, but he doesn't need to.


	5. The Emperor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Order and stability.

He realizes he doesn’t fit into this city’s mold of elite and unworthy, black and white, rich and poor, because he’s always been the inbetween. Yuusei, Crow, Jack--they all live and breath the city’s poverty, the crippling prejudice, grew up in the bowels of the beast that both swallows and nurtures them whole. It’s an (unfortunately) human cycle that follows wherever he goes.

Yuusei tries--Crow, too--to help him live in the murky idea of stripped human rights and ugly classicism and they don’t like it as much as he doesn’t, but they’re dealing with it much better.

 _What do you do?_ and Juudai lied but--it’s a lie of omission. _What kind of errands?_ He just smiles and doesn’t answer.

(Yuusei doesn’t need to know, and he’s sure if he _did_ know, Yuusei wouldn’t want to.)


	6. The Hierophant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Living faith in everyday life; the world's views and beliefs.

Seasons change in routine, like many other things on earth--greens to reds to browns to stark white. It’s how different winter is from the rest that really draws attention to it, has so many poets and writers try to put on paper the majesty of the falling snow and the cold blanket that coats the land in a world of reflected ice crystals sparkling under the morning sun.

(It’s also this reason that they love spring just as much as they do winter, because the juxtaposition of dying and rebirth is always beautiful, how green sprouts push through white snow and breathe life into the world again after a season of death and silence.)

But the matter isn’t how poetic both seasons are, nor is it the fact that they change.

Juudai hates the color white.

“Herald.”

“Hierophant.”

The man doesn’t smile, but Juudai still feels as though he’s being mocked. But all of that has to be thrown away, because it doesn’t matter if Juudai hates the color white--which, the man in front of him loves--it’s petty in the end. Petty and pointless.

“Godwin is on the move,” what banter they could possibly exchange is forsaken in favor of business. “No doubt you’ve heard of _Revolution_ already. I suppose I don’t need to tell you it’s a military show disguised as some wasteful competition.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?”

“I don’t have contacts here, Hierophant,” it’s uncharacteristic for him to be so serious--at least, that’s what anyone who lives with him would say. If Yuusei and Crow saw him now, he wouldn’t be the same person. “Unless I’m counting you. I’m trying to call in Hermit, but he’s been busy for a while.”

“He’s always busy. I suppose he doesn’t have time for your vigilante justice.”

“I’m not here to argue.”

“No, that would be counterproductive.”

The alleyway they choose to meet in is heavy and dark, damp in some aspects, and absolutely crawling with rodents. But neither of them have a choice in luxury at all.

“Thanks,” he finally relents. Juudai tires of antagonizing too easily--it’s not in his nature. The hostility they keep up is only for show. For old time’s sake and all the nostalgia that comes with it. “I appreciate your info.”

“And I thank you for your courtesy,” the man mock-bows, but the brief reprieve from the atmosphere comes back as he walks up and closer to Juudai, a rectangular sheet of paper in his hand. “But this is what you came for, isn’t it?”

The paper is a card, the image of a golden tower printed on it.

“I want to say yes, but I have no idea what that is.”

“It’s the hint to your next target. Number sixteen, the Tower.”

It seems to glow in the moonlight.


	7. The Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Making a decision that makes your heart glad.

The door to Yuusei’s shop has a quaint little bell, one that rings with the smallest of movements in the greatest melody for the shortest two seconds of his life. It’s perhaps not the bell but the surroundings that add to it, but Yuusei’s shop is a small little building squeezed between the grocery store and the blacksmith. On good days, a couple people will wander in for spare parts, a few of them wanting commission work or repairs, and some people who aren’t even there for the glory of machinery but the glory of Yuusei.

(Juudai teases him about it, much to his embarrassment.)

“Good morning!” Juudai says when he walks in, a lunch box tucked under his arm and a tune on his tongue. He puts the lunch box on the counter and then it’s followed quickly by his elbows. “You forgot your lunch, _honey_.”

“Juudai, _please_ ,” Yuusei’s look is suffering, and sends Juudai into a fit of laughter. “I hope you didn’t come across town just to deliver my food. I’m pretty sure I could have survived without lunch for a day.”

“Actually, that _was_ my original plan,” here, Juudai rummages around his pockets a bit before he digs out a crumpled box from his vest. With a bit of fumbling, he puts it on top of the table, the box so crinkled and bent that it’s hard to read any letters that could have been on it. “But I ran into Aki on the way here. She told me to give you this--sorry it’s a bit wrinkled.”

“I don’t mind,” Yuusei just loosens the still-intact ribbon wrapped around the box and sets it aside. He then finds the intended opening and carefully unfolds the beaten and battered box.

“Oh hey, could I have some?” Juudai eagerly leans over the table and pops a piece of chocolate into his mouth, not at all waiting for Yuusei to answer, but it doesn’t seem like the mechanic minds anyway--if small smile is anything to go by.

“Juudai, please,” but Yuusei just shakes his head and eats one of the assorted seashell-shaped chocolates as well. “Tell her thanks, if you can.”

“What’s the occasion?”

“It’s an anniversary,” there’s the same porcelain smile from weeks ago. Even though Yuusei has gotten better at hiding it, Juudai can see it from a mile away. Always, _always_ , because he remembers smiling like that before. He can spot his own cracks on Yuusei’s facade (or perhaps he just pastes them there and it blends in with the rest).

It’s not his place to pry. “Don’t look so doom and gloom,” Juudai smiles and picks up a piece of chocolate. “I bet she made these so that you wouldn’t feel so sad.”

“Juudai--”

“Say _aaah_ ,” and Juudai plonks the piece of chocolate right into Yuusei’s open mouth.

The mechanic coughs once, chews, and then swallows, and the tiniest hint of a glare that he shoots at Juudai is enough to send him into another round of laughter. Yuusei isn’t one for ill-intent at all, so the glare fades soon enough, Juudai still beaming with mirth.

“Your _face_ , Yuusei--”

“I know, I’ve been told that a lot.”

Juudai just grins as he sees the tiny sliver of shadow fade from Yuusei’s eyes and they proceed to pelt each other with the homemade chocolates Aki gave him.

One of them trips over a pile of tires near the center of the room and it’s so incredibly cliche when they land on top of each other and Juudai has that twinkle in his eyes that Yuusei smothers with kisses.

(But that’s fine, isn’t it?)


	8. The Chariot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The triumph of will in difficult circumstances.

“I really don’t know who the Tower is,” Juudai says when he and the Hierophant meet up next. This time, it’s just a small cafe on the borderline between Tops and Satellite, middle-class in its own right, but he’s long since learned there really isn’t a middle class in this city as it is the more successful people from the slums.

“Usually you’re on these things rather quick,” he replies. The waitress comes over to take their order and Juudai just asks for a small selection of sweets. The Hierophant asks for a cup of tea, and then they’re left alone again. “What’s stumping you this time?”

“I don’t follow your creepy vague hints, you know,” Juudai snorts and slides the Tower card onto the table. “Something destructive is all I know about it. What else is there?”

“If you listened to my ‘creepy, vague hints’ you’d learn something,” he rolls his eyes and accepts the waitress’ tray as she puts their assortment of food on the table.

 “I’m waiting for one, then.”

“Cheeky,” but he just laughs and takes a sip of his tea. “A Tower specifically means to destroy something that has been built up with a lot of effort over time.”

“Betrayal.”

The Hierophant merely takes another sip of his tea.


	9. Strength

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calm control and acceptance of our darker aspects.

He almost feels sorry for the man in front of him, dressed in the finest silks that money can buy, dyed in camellia reds and whites. The wealth hangs off of his ears in gold shaped like teardrops--ironic, since that’s what he’s crying right now.

He’s not sure what amount of adrenaline he should be feeling pumping through his veins right now, but his heart is oddly calm. Perhaps because it’s not really _his_ heart as it is someone else’s, but then again, both of them are the same person. It’d be foolish (and in denial) to say that they’re different people.

“I-Is it money you want? I have plenty--”

“No, not at all,” he takes one step closer, watching as the man scoots back in a hurry, wide eyes boring into his to _please, please have mercy_ but Juudai learned long ago that mercy never helps or works. Nor does he have the time and power to keep mercy in check. “I’m here for information on Godwin.”

“I can’t tell you anything!”

“That’s too bad,” he squats down to eye level with the man, a bent and broken pipe in his hand, a calm smile on his lips. “I’m a very persuasive person, I’ve been told.”

The world blackens with shadows, a thousand hands from the darkness to smother the light, and the only thing the man sees is a flash of gold--reptilian gold--before the world is consumed.


	10. The Hermit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Retreating from distractions to learn your own truth.

“Have you seen Juudai around lately?” Crow asks one day, laid backwards on the floor and face underneath a rickety old engine, spitting sparks haphazardly onto the floor.

Yuusei hands him a wrench from the toolbox. “He said he was going to be out of town for a week to see some friends,” the engine groans again and Yuusei slides over on his wheeled chair to fix up what he can. It’s Crow’s old motorcycle engine, and they’re trying to repurpose it for Yuusei’s dog (and neither of them have the funds to really buy a new one). “He left pretty quickly.”

“Huh,” a few more tiny clanks, and Crow slides out from underneath. “He didn’t strike me as a busy person. You said it yourself--he’s practically like a housewife.”

“He laughed at me for that,” Yuusei chuckles and curls a length of rope around one of the broken parts to keep it still while they tried to hammer the rest of it back into place. “Apparently he runs errands for people as a way of income.”

“You sound like you don’t believe that.”

Yuusei shrugs. “If he doesn’t want to tell me it’s his choice.”

The door slams open then, and Yuusei chances a glance long enough to see a coat of white march through the door. “Oi, open the door more gently,” Crow doesn’t bother to look in that direction. He knows who it is. “I’m not fixing the door next time if you break it, Jack.”

“You can hardly expect me to fix it,” Jack says in response. He just goes over to the small kitchenette to pour himself a giant helping of coffee. “Why should I do any sort of dirty work? I’m a Ki--”

“Guys,” and Yuusei interrupts before the two can start on another argument (while he’s still here and will be for a while). “Calm down. If the door gets broken, I can go ahead and fix it. It doesn’t take too long anyway.”

“Yuusei,” Crow slowly slides out from underneath the engine, a look of utmost awe on his face. “You’re too good for this arrogant asshole. Please save yourself--”

“What did you say--?!”

Yuusei just sighs as the two start arguing again despite his attempt to mediate. Well, he just goes back to screwing the last bolt on the engine and tapping around to find any more faults he could possibly fix on the exterior. It’s going to be a bit big for the dog, but he just has to make a few modifications on his own. Crow is already busy with his own work and Jack… Jack isn’t too interested in anything besides himself.

“I think that’s it for the outside,” he says over their banter. “I can finish the rest since you’re busy, Crow.”

“What? Of course you don’t have to, I’m free all day today anyway,” the argument stops as Crow just casually keeps on working while ignoring the equally huffy Jack at the dining table. “There’s some sort of disturbance on the road to Tops. Some of the runners got delayed.”

“Disturbance?” this is the first time Yuusei has heard this.

Jack puts his cup on the table with a loud _clack_. “They found one of the noble’s bodies at the intersection,” he says, providing the information as Crow continued working. As much as they argue, there’s always some sort of invisible ping-pong they play with each other--they know each other’s moves too well. “He was beaten to death, apparently.”

“Which is stupid, by the way,” Crow grumbles as he slides out one last time and gets off the wheeled platform to dust off his clothes. “They’re going to blame this on us, as usual, and things will just get even worse, _as usual_.”

“Wasn’t there another noble who disappeared a while back, too?” Yuusei asks. He remembers the headlines of the newspaper that gets delivered to his shop every day. “They still can’t find his body.”

“I don’t know who’s causing all these incidents but they need to stop,” Crow replies. He throws a wrench at Yuusei who expertly catches and deposits it in the box. “We’re all going to get blamed for someone’s vengeance. Even if I don’t like those slimy nobles at all.”

Jack makes a small noise of agreement.

Yuusei leaves the apartment with a thousand questions and a repaired engine for his mechanical dog. It’s another few hours for him to modify its size small enough to fit into the main body of the animal, but he’s done soon enough.

“Huh?” he goes over to the box pile near the door--his own organized scrap heap--and digs through a few of the boxes for spare metal to meld the engine and dog together. “I swear I put one of the broken pipes here.”

It’d be rather big, so he didn’t think he missed it.

Yuusei just shrugs and finds another few pieces of metal to use instead.


	11. The Wheel of Fortune

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A random occurrence is at hand.

Yuusei is at a loss and, to be even more unfair, Juudai probably already knows everything.

There’s so many things that he doesn’t know about Juudai: his origins, his life before Satellite, his reason for coming, who his friends are, why he lies so easily through his teeth about _running errands_ and why Yuusei can’t fault him at all for not knowing a single thing.

(Perhaps the same reason why Yuusei keeps forcing a smile at the mention of _that day_ and _that person_ and he understands a little too much why Juudai likes to keep his secrets.)

( _Kiryu--_ )

Later--much, _much_ later, when he’s got burns on his hands for too many hours stuck inside a lab, ink stains from writing too many reports, the skin on his body beginning to crease and he’s got dependents--he’ll think it was silly, how it all ate at him like some life-shattering mystery waiting to be solved. And perhaps, it was, or it still is. And even more, perhaps it was just how the universe worked its magic, its lifestream--

Juudai swims in it.

He dances on the currents of its flow, feet never once touching the ground but the water--he walks on the water and he dances and spins and twirls to some invisible tune that Yuusei can never see or hear. One turn, and then he thinks he sees the vestiges of gold wrap around his eyes and his fingers, gold like the sun and gold like gold: always so beautiful and longed for and Yuusei can’t reach it at all.

Another turn, and that gold splits into orange and teal, the beginnings of a stranger wrapping around Juudai’s frame, like the lifestream of the universe was beginning to corrupt him but Yuusei blinks once (just once) and there he is again: brown eyes and wide smile and a laugh that’s never like the lies that pour from his mouth.

He tries so hard to join that beat, that rhythm, tries to wade out into the lifestream but it eludes him every time. He can’t see it. He can’t walk on it either, not like the way Juudai does.

Infatuation with the unknown, he’d think later, looking over papers and writing lab results while musing about years past and gone.

 “Did you miss me?” he asks when he gets home after two weeks (one week, he’d said, but that was a lie, too) and Yuusei feels some sort of routine click back into his life.

(Had it always been so empty without him around?)

“What would I do without you?” and it’s lie through his own teeth but not at the same time. Sarcasm wrapped around the truth. “Did you have fun?”

“Of course,” Juudai’s smile is, however, never a lie. “I missed you, too, y’know.”

Yuusei chuckles and feels a smile come on. “Pharaoh missed you more, I’m sure.”

“Pharaoh never misses me,” Juudai crouches on the floor with the large tabby and strokes him behind the ears. “Pharaoh knows I’ll always come back to find him.”

Sometimes he thinks the cat is probably worth more than him.


	12. Justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The consequences of your action are at hand.

There is no such thing as justice, just man’s deluded morals of it.

Retribution, on the other hand, is a fair game.


	13. The Hanged Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willing surrender to an experience or situation.

_Yuusei will understand._

Yuusei is many things: a boy from the slums with eyes too bright, with hope despite the filth and poverty that clings like a second skin (cloying and choking away thought and innovation), never giving up on the possibility of the future.

He is kind, generous to strangers, sacrificing the fruits of his hard-earned labour (sweat dotting his brow, scarred, calloused hands and gentle brush-offs to well-meaning queries) to help a starving child. He is dangerously talented, with ideas and application that could revolutionize the world.

A far better man than he is.

Yuusei is the only one he would unflinchingly and unhesitatingly call his best friend. They grew up together, lived together, fought together--through blood and fire,  death and dissolution. Yuusei is someone he trusts beyond measure, a warm constant in a world where lives were as transient and meaningless as wisps of vapor, of dew drops glistening off of petals.

Familiarity. Comfort. _Family_.

And he will throw it all away.

A sacrifice on the altar of greatness, to open up a path to the sky which he will climb no matter what it takes. No matter what he has to do to get there.

_Yuusei will understand._

(The worst part is knowing that Yuusei always will.

Even if Jack will strike him through the back he will always say “that’s okay” and it _hurts_.)


	14. Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All good things must come to an end.

“The deadline for Revolution is being pushed up a week,” Crow says as soon as he enters the apartment, a box of clothes in his arms. He lightly bounces it once in his hands. “By the way, these are for Juudai. He said he was running out clean clothes to wear and I figure we’re about the same height.”

“I don’t see him wear much besides his vest and white button-up,” Yuusei off-handedly comments, not once looking away from the mechanical dog on the table. “Maybe he just needed a new wardrobe.”

“Like you do?” Crow raises an eyebrow and laughs at Yuusei’s dark expression. “I think blue looks nice on you, but that coat is starting to rack up patches.”

Yuusei grunts. “What was that about Revolution being pushed up a week?”

“Oh, yeah,” Crow sets the box down on the coffee table and digs out a sheet of paper from his jacket. Somehow, it’s still intact with only a few minor creases along the edge. “They stuck these on the apartment building. The deadline is next week.”

“Next week?” Yuusei finally looks up from the giant metal dog. “That’s not enough time for me to finish this.”

“I don’t expect anything less with Tops, to be honest,” Crow scowls and plops down on the beaten leather couch. “If you need help with it, I’m more than happy to. Business isn’t very fast what with all the nobles being scared they’re next with whoever our mystery killer is.”

“That might also be why the deadline is being moved up,” Yuusei says. “Have you seen Jack lately?”

“He’s been out and about more than ever--didn’t even come home yesterday!” Crow sighs and runs a hand through his hair, eyes staring at the ceiling. “Whatever he’s doing I hope he’s safe.”

“I never thought I’d hear that from your mouth.”

“What is that supposed to mean--”

The door on the other side of the room opens, and Juudai walks out with an entourage of steam and a towel around his waist. He scrubs his eyes once before blinking at the extra addition in the house.

“Just in time, Juudai!” Crow leans back on the couch and sticks a thumb at the box on the coffee table. “I brought some of my old clothes for you. They’re too small for me but they’ll fit you. We’re about the same height too so it shouldn’t be too saggy.”

“Thanks!” Juudai happily rushes over to grab the box and disappear back into the room full of steam. The door closes with a click and the other two are left alone again.

“You know… Juudai has been a little scarce, too,” Yuusei says once a minute has passed and he’s back to trying to program whatever it is he wants with the giant robot dog in front of him. There’s a few sparks that sizzle on his skin, but nothing he hasn’t suffered already. “He leaves in the middle of the night sometimes.”

“Like Jack?”

“Does he leave in the middle of the night, too?”

“Sometimes. But he’s been doing it for a while and whenever I ask he gets extremely huffy so I don’t really bother,” Crow shrugs. “By the way, try adding a liter more of water to the tank. The more steam you make the easier it is for the dog to move.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Juudai comes out again, dressed in clothes a size too big for him considering Crow’s bulkier build and his lanky frame, but it’s better than nothing.

“Thanks for the clothes, Crow,” he smiles. Crow gives him a thumbs up and watches as he picks up his knapsack and leaves with a hurried _see you later_.

“Just like that?” he asks.

“Just like that.”


	15. Temperance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The right thing at the right time at the right place.

Juudai blinks awake in the middle of the night, the remnants of a barely remembered dream clinging to him like wisps of gossamer, delicate and intangible and sliding apart like ether as he tries to grasp it. He is momentarily lost, his mind still back swirling in the mists of sleep and in that moment he cannot remember where or even who he is, the bittersweet scent of oblivion clinging to his lips. He groans and rolls over to try to go back to sleep but his hands grasp air instead of a warm, familiar body, strengthened by labour but tempered by the gentleness of sorrow and loss.

“Yuusei?” Juudai mumbles, pushing himself up on his elbows and scans the room for his wayward companion. The jacket draped across his shoulders slide down to pool in his lap,  

Yuusei is hunched over his workbench, meticulously tightening a bolt here and adjusting a switch there. His shoulders stiffen a fraction. Then he turns, blue eyes soft. “Did I wake you?” he asks, apologetic, sheepish smile curving his lips as he sets his wrench down.

Juudai shakes his head, his grin equally fond but slightly exasperated.  “You said you were going to take the rest of the night off,” he reminds him.

“Ah. Yes,” Yuusei breaks off to give his work a look that can only be described as longing and guilty. “I just had an idea for a new gear configuration that should help smooth out the rotation of the joints. It should only take a couple more hours--”

Juudai is carefully taking the wrench from his calloused fingers and wrapping them up in his paler, softer ones. “Come back to bed,” he beckons. “This can wait until morning. That way you won’t have to squint at all those little pieces. You won’t do anyone any good if you wear yourself out!”

Yuusei looks like he wants to protest but the dark, dark circles under his eyes are speaking for themselves. He smiles again, warm and grateful and carefully drapes his other hand over Juudai’s, far more carefully than he had ever held his gears.

“You’re right.” A gentle crank and the oil lamp flickers dark.

They don’t wake up until long after the sun rises. 


	16. The Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A choice, situation, or action that is contrary to your best interest.

“Do what I ask and I’ll make you a rightful King of this city.”

“I know that. Don’t rush me. He’s not done with it at all yet. Your little deadline is making things a bit harder when he’s always on guard twenty-four seven.”

“Are you saying you can’t do the job?”

“Of course I can. Don’t underestimate me.”

“I’m a little worried your brotherly bonds will get in the way.”

A scowl. “You’re underestimating me. Know this: I will do _whatever_ it takes to get to the top. And that’s including deceiving him.”

“Perhaps. I’ll see you in three day’s time. Hopefully with that _thing_.”

“You don’t have to be hopeful when it’s going to be true.”


	17. The Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“A Tower specifically means to destroy something that has been built up with a lot of effort over time.”_
> 
> _“Betrayal.”_
> 
> _The Hierophant merely takes another sip of his tea._

“Yuusei!” Juudai practically topples over a stack of boxes in his mad dash towards the living room, but there’s only one destination that clouds his sight when he pushes the door open and stumbles out into the hallway, brown eyes wild with adrenaline. “Yuusei, it’s bad, Jack has--”

“Juudai,” it’s Crow who speaks up, leaning against the wall of the kitchenette. He gestures silently to Yuusei hunched over the dining table--clean for the first time since Juudai arrived, the mechanical dog no where in sight. There are shadows that dance over Yuusei’s face, obscuring his eyes and his expression.

“Shouldn’t we… shouldn’t we go after him? There’s only one train to goes from Satellite to Tops and it only operates at this time for the _Revolution_ people. If we hurry we can still make it--”

“It’s fine,” Yuusei says, fingers gripping the edge of the table so hard that his knuckles turn white. Juudai immediately runs over, tries to take those hands in his and provide something, _anything_ for the situation right now. “It’s fine. I understand.”

“You spent _months_ on that project, Yuusei!” it’s not his voice but Crow’s, who slams his fist against the wall hard enough for it to crack. “To think that asshole is going to take your work for his own steal the first place that you deserve is--”

“It’s fine,” Yuusei repeats, this time firmer. He looks up and Juudai catches sight of his eyes--electric blue and blazing, _sparking_ \--Yuusei stands up and brushes his bangs away from his face. “I can’t guarantee that was a first place win, anyway. We’ll call him a prototype.”

“Prototype? Yuusei, this chance won’t come for another two years--”

“Then I have two years to perfect a new one,” Yuusei turns and pins Crow with a _look_ , instantly shutting him up. “There were kinks in the prototype anyway. I wouldn’t have been able to test run it in time for the competition. Now, I have more time to go and try again with knowledge of the things that went wrong in the first one.”

“Yuusei--”

“It’s _fine_ ,” Yuusei gets up and shakes his hands from Juudai’s, opening a door on the other side of the living room. “I just need some time to think.”

The door closes.

“Yuusei,” Crow sighs and shakes his head, collapsing against the wall of the apartment. “I swear the next time I see Jack I’m going to sock him in the face. And then one more for good measure.”

Juudai smiles. “Well, I think I might do that, too.”

“We can both do it at once. It hurts more.”

Their shared laughter is the only thing that breaks the tenseness of the atmosphere, causes Yuusei to relax his shoulders the next room over and look out the window at the passing train overhead.

“Yeah, I understand,” Yuusei repeats again, this time more for himself than for the other two outside. “I can’t fault you for chasing your dreams, even if I am a little angry myself.”

Yuusei laughs and collapses on the bed, hand over his eyes.

“ _There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio_.”


	18. The Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guidance and Hope.

Yuusei builds as he always does: with conviction and determination, calloused hands molding and casting with uninhibited will, the strength and gaze that could fell gods at his feet. And just the same, there is enough kindness that draws the heavens to his frame, coats him in a fine layer of stardust and moonshine. Perhaps an ideal that Juudai can never reach, with the lies that wash over his own frame.

If Yuusei is starlight, he is the eternal darkness of space. Somehow, they fit together so easily despite being so vastly different. It astounds him more than anything.

“You should sleep,” Juudai says, fatigue in his own body, circles under his eyes. He yawns and stretches, looks at the tiny result of robotic evolution in front of him and marvels for a little bit.

Dogs wouldn’t do, apparently--Yuusei wanted a dragon.

And so a dragon he built.

“Not yet, we’re two months from the competition,” Yuusei doesn’t sound the least bit tired. He’s got a pair of black glasses perched over his eyes, too big for his face that he has to keep pushing it back up every now and then. “If they cut the deadline again, I want to be ready this time. With luck, we can start test running Stardust next month.”

“We’re not going to be able to test run him if you collapse in the middle of it,” Juudai yawns again, rubbing his eyes. The only light in the room is a jar of fireflies at the end of the dining table--their electricity has been a bit unstable the past few days. “ _Yuuseiiii_.”

“I don’t mind if you go to sleep.”

“That’s not the point,” sighing, Juudai stands up and drapes himself over Yuusei’s shoulders, breath exhaling over the juncture of his neck. “Go to sleeeep.”

“I really need to--Juudai?” whatever Juudai was going to say next is lost as he slumps against Yuusei, a light snore escaping his mouth. Yuusei just sighs and smiles, and puts his glasses down on the table. “I suppose it _is_ late.”

He carefully gets up and carries Juudai in his arms, forsaking the shining white dragon on the dining room table for one more night.

It seems to laugh at him as he opens the door to the bedroom and deposits Juudai’s unconscious body on the mattress.

“Good night, Juudai.”

“G’d nigh’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> art done by [pumpkin](http://pumpkinpawn.tumblr.com/)!


	19. The Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A situation of flux and uncertainty, fraught with either deception or the revealing of important truths.

“You’ve been a bit scarce the past two years, Herald.”

“I had things to do besides antagonizing Tops,” Juudai rolls his eyes. “Anyway, I’m here for what I always am, Hierophant.”

“Yes, yes, I have your information,” the man drops a stack of papers on the table between them. “Although meeting at your residence isn’t one of your best decisions.”

“I’d rather not leave Yuusei to whatever insomniac tendencies he has,” Juudai laughs, but there’s a fondness to his voice that the Hierophant picks up on. “Besides, he’s asleep right now. Is this everything regarding the noble attacks from the last two years?”

“Everything I could dig up,” he says. “It seems you have some sort of guardian angel, _Juu-chan_.”

“Don’t call me that,” Juudai makes a face. “It’s hard enough knowing that Yubel is here. Ae’s gonna skin Yuusei.”

“That’s not my fault, is it?” the Hierophant laughs. “Ae is the one who’s been cleaning up after you when you go to interrogate all those nobles. Ae’s also been the one making things difficult for Tops to… continue being Tops.”

“Ae always gets things done,” Juudai says with a hint of pride. “Although this is perfect timing, isn’t it? I’m going to need ae next week.”

“For _Revolution_?”

“Of course,” Juudai just drops the stack of papers in a nearby box and quickly seals the top. He kicks it into the scrap heap box pile, where it no doubt will be forgotten by everyone except for him. “They’re stacking odds against Yuusei, from what I’ve heard. Jack is still in his crystal white tower, but we’ll dethrone him soon enough.”

“Revenge, is it? I thought you were past that, Herald.”

“I am,” he grins. “Yuusei likes Jack too much. Besides, the face Jack makes when Yuusei has the comeback is going to be worth whatever else revenge plans I could have cooked up.”

“Don’t make yourself _too_ scarce.”

“I won’t. Thanks, Saiou.”

“Always willing to help.”

 


	20. The Sun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clarity that brings joy.

Sunrise is, in Juudai’s opinion, always the most beautiful of times. He never gets to see it, what with his habit of sleeping in all the time (probably due to his late night escapades), but having a day where he can watch the bold colors of the sky has always been a pleasure.

Even more when there is someone else there to watch it with him.

“It’s today, right?” Juudai asks as he leans back on his arms on top of the roof and stares at the slowly peeking sun over the horizon. “In a few hours, we’ll be leaving for Tops.”

“This isn’t much of a sunrise, what with the smoking factory chimneys blocking most of everything,” Yuusei says with a laugh. “Perhaps it’s better in Tops.”

“They probably have like, specialized sun-viewing balconies or something,” Juudai joins in his laughter. “We can watch after we make it there.”

“That’s an awful lot of confidence you have.”

“Of course! Stardust was made by you, after all! You are sure to win.”

Yuusei loosens his stance for a bit, and it’s enough body language for Juudai to tell what’s going on. He scoots a bit closer and puts his head on Yuusei’s shoulder, a weight that holds him there--physically and mentally, because even after all this time Yuusei is still not convinced that he will take the trophy.

“Thanks,” he says, eyes never leaving the dirty fog that fills the sky, broken only by the loose bits of sunlight that filter through and break the monochrome.

“You can start with your attitude,” Juudai teases.

Yuusei pushes him off.


	21. Judgement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hearing and heeding a call.

“Stop tinkering so much with it!”

“Stardust has a problem with the rotation of her wings. It’s best to get that fixed before we arrive at the competition.”

Crow leans over and pats Juudai on the head. “Don’t mind him, it’s his own version of pre-date jitters,” he says. “Let him busy his hands with something before he worries himself to death.”

Juudai groans and shoves his hands over his face. The train catches a bump and causes the entire cart to shake. “He didn’t get this jittery in bed.”

“Oh my God, I did not need to know that--”

 


	22. The World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Successful completion.

The smile Yuusei gives at the center of the stage is something he’ll remember for a long time to come. The announcer grabs his wrist and raises it up and--and the absolute joy that spreads across his cheeks is something to be envied. But that’s fine. It’s even better knowing that he helped put that smile there.

“Thank you, Juudai,” Yuusei says later when the festivities have stopped and they’re located somewhere out of sight of possible paparazzi. “Thank you so much.”

Yuusei leans over and wraps his arms around Juudai, crushing him beneath his strength but Juudai finds that he doesn’t mind, not at all. Instead, he just laughs and returns the embrace, mumbling sweet but incoherent nothings into his blue jacket.

“You were the one who came all the way here by yourself,” he says. “I still don’t know too much about machines.”

“But if you weren’t there every day, encouraging me, I could not have done it,” Yuusei breaks apart for a moment to stare straight into Juudai’s eyes. “Thank you.”

Juudai smiles. “This is only the beginning, you know. You might have won _Revolution_ and earned a spot in Tops, but this system…”

“I’m going to demolish it.”  
Juudai laughs, planting a firm kiss on Yuusei’s lips. “Then I’ll help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> art by [thayora](http://thayora.tumblr.com)
> 
> i dont want to look at this again i am doooone  
> whatever plot i had went down the drain and i'm so sorry
> 
> leave comments? ;u;


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